The True Meaning
by spoodle monkey
Summary: Rossi's Christmas with the BAU, some holiday cheer, an impromptu party and the chance for something more. Rossi/Morgan, Hotch/Reid, Garcia/Kevin


Disclaimer: If I owned Criminal Minds I would be totally be in heaven!!! Unfortunatly, I'm still earth bound.

A/N- So, I love Rossi and Reid and I love them even more with Morgan and Hotch. And wow- Emily is amazing. So, I wrote an X-Mas Story! Happy Holidays!

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One week to Christmas and in some lucky twist of fate, they don't have a new case. He's never been more grateful for the boredom of finishing all of his backlogged reports. His hand is aching by the time he decides to take a break, so with a sigh, he stands, places his glasses on his desk and stretches. Which is incidentally why he catches sight of Emily dashing across the bullpen, up the stairs and into the conference room, arms laden with…wrapping paper.

He has nothing better to do, and his curiosity is piqued, so Dave slips out of his office with a quick glance around then heads to the conference room. Hotch's office door is closed, and Jordan is still working away in her own office, but Reid, Emily and Morgan are all missing from their desks.

Dave pauses outside the door, noticing how it's only open a crack as though they don't want anyone to know what they're doing. Now he's really curious to figure out what the three of them are up to.

He silently pushes the door open and sticks his head in, hearing the faint sounds of Christmas music, coming from a radio in the corner. They've moved the conference table off to the side somehow; it now has chips and dip covering it.

Streamers were on the walls, the ceiling, everywhere. It is like the room has had a complete makeover and in the middle of it sits Derek, Reid and Emily on the floor, chatting happily while they wrap various boxes that lay scattered around them.

Derek spots him first, a quick glance to the door followed by a wide smile and Rossi can feel his own in return. Reid squeaks when he spots Dave at the door, hastily shoving a few boxes behind him and Emily gestures for him to come in and join them. It really is an entertaining sight.

"What's going on?" He asks as he steps in and closes the door behind himself. Derek moves some of the boxes out of the way and gestures for him to sit, so he does feeling older bones creak slightly.

"Christmas!" Reid exclaims cheerfully. There's a new spark in his eyes. It's reminiscent of a child on Christmas morning. He forgets how young Reid is sometimes.

"We're wrapping presents." Emily explains. There's a neat pile of well wrapped presents next to her. She displays them like trophies, proud of her work.

"And the decorations?" Dave asks, waving a hand at the streamers and sprigs of mistletoe.

"We're throwing a party!" Reid's good mood is contagious, he realizes as his grin widens.

There's a thump from outside and a muffled grunt. He glances at the closed door, then gets up and opens it to see what's going on, on the other side. He's met by a tree. A fur tree, standing there and blocking the doorway. It's not an exceptionally large tree, but it's big enough. He has this weird feeling that there is someone on the other side of the tree.

"Hotch!" Reid scrambles to his feet and gracefully slips around him and the tree and out into the hall where he suspects Hotch is. And here he'd thought their fearless leader had been working on paperwork.

There's muffled laughter coming from the other end of the tree as it shifts and then Dave has to duck out of the way as it suddenly starts to fall towards him. Emily darts in front of him and grabs the tree, directing it through the door, while Derek grabs his arm and tugs him out of the way of the wayward tree.

"Alright, freeze!" Emily calls out suddenly, still holding the tree. Reid and Hotch both automatically stop, looking around for whatever the problem is. Emily grins, a slow, way to happy, grin. "Mistletoe." Five sets of eyes drift up to above the door frame. Reid turns an interesting shade of red, then glances almost shyly over at Hotch. Hotch is already leaning over the branches to meet him in the middle.

There's a startled 'eep' from behind them all, interrupting the kiss just as it gets started. He can't stop the muffled laughter that escapes him at Jordan's confused look. Derek's in hysterics next to him as Emily, Hotch and a vividly red Reid, finally get the tree into the room and up on a stand in the corner.

Dave ends up on the floor with Emily and Jordan, deftly wrapping presents while Jordan sticks gift tags to them when they're not paying attention. Derek wanders off in search of Garcia and Kevin Lynch and whoever else they were planning on kidnapping for this impromptu party, but his attention keeps drifting over to the corner where Reid and Hotch are decorating the tree, talking quietly, sharing small smiles between the two of them. They're lucky, he thinks- to have found one another.

Dave nearly jumps out of his skin as the music suddenly gets turned up and the plasma turns itself on. They glance around in confusion, then the video starts rolling and he realizes what's going on. Garcia makes her entrance at that moment, wearing a green and red dress with ginger bread men on it and mistletoe in her hair. Kevin is glued to her side, gazing at her adoringly.

"And this, my sweets, is my present to you." She gestures at the plasma. The lights are dimmed as they gather around, making themselves comfortably on the floor or leaning against the wall. The video starts and he's surprised to see himself, standing on a chair in his office, quoting Shakespeare. He can just make out Emily and J.J in the background of the video laughing, while they sit on the floor in front of his desk. Dave blushes at the memory, mentally cursing himself for agreeing to do that in the first place, then the image shifts and the video continues.

The video ends twenty minutes later and receives resounding applause then the party begins. The tree looks great, especially with the various decorations. A lot of them are home made. People from around the building drift in and out, enjoying the celebrations; he looks up at one point to see that Emily has cornered Reid for a dance, which Hotch watches, amused from the side lines.

Dave glances over to where Derek is slouched against the wall, chatting with Kevin. The younger man spots him looking and smiles, a slow, easy smile that makes Rossi's mouth go dry. He returns the smile, surprised when Derek excuses himself and makes his way over to him.

"So, a Christmas party, huh?" Dave says when Derek joins him.

"It seemed like everyone needed it." They did. They're all incredibly lucky that their party hasn't been interrupted by any cases.

"How did you get Hotch to agree to get the tree?" It's not that Hotch is a scrooge; he just has trouble picturing the man agreeing to go out and pick up a six foot tree.

"Oh that, that was easy." Derek grins and leans in closer, sliding an arm around his shoulders. Rossi soaks up the warmth, leaning into the hard body next to his. "I just got Reid to ask, and then mentioned Reid's less than great past Christmas'." Hotch would do anything for Reid.

"Ingenious." Dave smirks, which softens as he follows Derek's line of sight above his head to where a sprig of mistletoe hangs. His breathing speeds up slightly, his gaze drawn to the lips that seemed to be growing closer to his own. No one is paying them any attention anyways, he figures. Their lips meet in a slow easy kiss and he groans without meaning to, his fingers seeking out and resting on the slim hip.

Then a flash goes off and they pull back startled. Emily grins, quickly stuffing the camera into her pocket before she goes off to visit with Jordan. Somehow he gets the feeling he's going to get a copy of that picture for Christmas. The holidays turn Emily into the ultimate match maker.

Dave turns his gaze back to Derek. They're still close, Derek's arm sitting loosely on his shoulders. The younger man smiles sheepishly at him, but there's a spark of heat in the brown eyes. So Dave says what the hell, and leans back in to continue where they had left off. It's almost Christmas; maybe he can have someone in his life too.


End file.
